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28 February 2008

Not until I actually had a decent one did I realize how important a well-designed suitcase is for an academic. And not until it broke did I realize how important a durable one is. We academics travel quite a bit--to conferences, to archives, to give talks, and also occasionally for fun. Three years ago, I got new luggage. As with many things, I followed the lead of one of my mentors on getting a hard case, and I ordered a small carry-on rolly hard case for one- or two-night, single-talk trips, and a mammoth hard case with spinning wheels for conferences. Both were Delsey. The spinning wheels, I kid you not, improved my travel experience by about 15%.

That may seem high, but trust me, when you can wheel your suitcase sideways both tilted and upright and in all directions--forward, backward, sideways, diagonally--navigating through aisles narrowed by people's gargantuan feet, you too will appreciate the brilliance of spinners. That large case also had a tri-fold suit bag, which is nothing short of brilliant. It had tons of room for the kinds of things we academics (especially we academic women) have to lug--e.g., suits, a sweater and boots in winter, running shoes, running clothes, file folders, books, for the paranoid, extra copies of your talk in case your carry-on gets stolen, comfy pants for the hotel room, washable clothes for when the conference is held in a state without smoking bans. Oh, and if you are addicted to strong coffee and can't be bothered with leaving your room to find a starbuck's, an unbreakable french press.

Alas, the large case, much like myself, emerged from last year's job market stint with a slight bit of damage, but still going: the suitcase spine split open, and the zipper stopped working properly. I made that case last almost another year, but after my train trip to Rochester last month, I laid it to rest. The piece of shit. The carry-on is still great, but I vowed to find a more durable brand.

After much research, and after realizing that JM and I will sometimes travel at the same time
and sometimes--gasp!--together, I have ordered up a three-piece luggage set made by Coleman, pictured at right. It's a basic set, also hard case, and the two large pieces have spinning wheels. They got great reviews online, and the whole set is much cheaper than other brands. Besides, coleman is kind of old school durable, or at least that's my impression. I think I can use the trifold suitbag from the not-so-durable Delsey with either of the larger pieces (a boon). They're also lighter weight than most hard cases, which is important for tightening weight regulations, as we learned from JM's sister who lives abroad and travels everywhere all the time.

With six trips coming up in April and May, I'll know pretty soon if these will last.

27 February 2008

Maybe I'm just a starved viewer, deprived through this long winter of all comedy save for the reruns and shows I hadn't bothered to watch yet, or maybe the writers were particularly on their game, having had months without pay to let good ideas simmer. Or maybe it's that this year's slate of overly-serious oscar nominees was dying to be satirized. In any case, this is the funniest SNL skit I've seen in some time.

24 February 2008

Last year I went to an Oscar party hosted by a grad student and her spouse. When guests walked in to the party, a sticker bearing the name of a previous best actor or actress winner was stuck to their back where they couldn't see, and then everyone got to go around trying to figure out who they were by asking questions about themselves. I knew I was on to something when I asked if I played a serial killer and I got looks like I was getting warm.

But it wasn't until we were all settled in watching the ceremonies and I noticed a few people cast unconscious glances my way when the camera cruised by Philip Seymour Hoffman that I flashed on who I was and why I'd won: Capote! One of my colleagues was Jon Voight, and I was the only one besides the hosts who even knew how to answer the person's questions, and not even that well. Yep, it was a young crowd--so young that some didn't seem to even remember when Hilary Swank won for Boys Don't Cry, or maybe I gave some bad clues. A totally fun night. And tasty chili and cookies.

The hostess of that party has moved on to a new job (sighyay), and so tonight I will watch the Oscars while snuggling with a whippet, eating my own damn cookies, and maybe--if I'm lucky--chatting online with E.

22 February 2008

1. JM and I watched every second of last night's debate, except for when the live stream konked out a couple of times. I even made a batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies for the occasion. Aside from a constant low-level annoyance that CNN hogged all the coverage--what is this, Monday night football?--I enjoyed every second of it. Okay, maybe not so the question about plagiarism, which made me want to smack with a ruler the knuckles of the moderator who asked. I very much liked Obama's "silly season" response. Both candidates were poised, smart, and except for the xerox comment which garnered some boos, they were collegial. In my view Obama notched more jaw-droppingly well-formulated answers, but Clinton had her share of good moments too, such as the closing comments, including the line about how everyone knows she's been through her share of rough times. Tell it, sister!

2. After such events, I tend to seek out the new blog of a colleague-to-be who specializes in matters presidential, and whose analysis is unfailingly spot on.

3. I am positively giddy that this person is going to be our new colleague next year.

4. I am almost halfway finished proofreading my Burke book, which means if everything goes well it will be off my desk again soon, hopefully.

5. Books are long.

6. Proofreading is boring.

7. Proofreading is also kind of nice for the distance it requires. I actually sit back further from my computer when I proofread as opposed to when I write.

8. I am beyond the point of worrying about pissing people off in this book. How's that for distance?

9. I heard two gunshots in our neighborhood at 2:30 a.m. Weird.

10. After the gunshots, I slept very deeply and had an intensely vivid dream about not being able to sleep.

11. After lunch, I will walk to the store in the snow and buy ingredients for flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce, and then I will make said cake and then this evening, we will eat said cake in honor of two--2!--awesome friends' birthdays.

12. This winter has been long and relentlessly cold, and I wish I could wait it out in a position like this:

20 February 2008

Yes you, the one who called into C-Span last night from Utah while the Wisconsin results were trickling in and who suggested that if Obama or Clinton takes the white house, their plan to roll back Bush's tax cuts will spell doom for a hypothetical couple working at starbucks pulling down 60K a year*, and then when the host tried to hang up insisted on making one more point which was that whites ought to "get credit" for helping make this country better for "those blacks," because now some of "them" are lawyers,**

18 February 2008

When we got our NYT on Sunday, I was shocked--shocked!--that there wasn't a single story on the shootings at NIU. I know they produce the paper in advance, and so I hadn't expected there to be new news, mind you, only some kind of report. In talking about this with John and his mom (who visited this weekend), I decided it had to be because unlike the VaTech shooter, this guy didn't make his own PR machine and have it delivered.

Thankfully, IHE has a short piece today about the disparity in coverage on school shootings, and how disparate coverage correlates to race and region and also other factors such as the slowness of the news week, etc. It's also true that the Va Tech tragedy took more lives.

Some think that viewers and readers are becoming inured to school shootings, and maybe that's partly true. But now I'm wondering whether what we have here isn't just a case of a story fizzling because it doesn't immediately and resolutely open up other issues. The Va Tech shooting, you'll remember, opened a whole slew of issues about gun control, mental illness, teachers' responsibilities, creative writing-as-warning sign, etc.

But Steve Kazmierczak is no Sueng-Hui Cho. Or at least the stories are quite different. By all accounts Kazmierczak was mild-mannered and smart and worked hard in school. A long time ago he spent a year in an institution for "unruly behavior" and according to his girlfriend had been taking prozac. Aside from the weird stuff that Kazmierczak mailed to his girlfriend, including an upbeat and encouraging note about her future with lots of cheerful exclamation points, there isn't much of a story here, except one of befuddlement. And befuddlement is not an occasion for arguments.

15 February 2008

Not sure what one is supposed to say after another hideous and terrifying campus shooting like the one that happened at Northern Illinois yesterday afternoon. As with the Va Tech shooting, I've spent the morning reading account after same account in disbelief. And we just received an email from our chancellor telling us that the gunman has been identified as a student from here at the U of I. Sympathies to our friends in Dekalb.

14 February 2008

This morning I had to send a flurry of emails to rearrange my teaching schedule for next year, and I am amazed by how easy it all was. My two departments have wonderful administrators and staff members who can--and do--make things happen lickety split. I'm very pleased with how it all turned out; it looks like I'm going to be teaching my Aristotle and Rhetorical Studies course in the fall (a.k.a. "Spawn of the Dead").

In this course, we read through Aristotle's Rhetoric bit by bit, focusing on one main concept each week. These concepts include persuasion, philosophy, invention, topoi,phantasia, delivery, and more. And each week, in addition to reading the next section of the Rhetoric, we read "around" Aristotle's tome, which is to say, we'll look at writings by his contemporaries as well as a selection of secondary texts, in order to see both what A was responding to and also to consider how his writings have been taken up. The course is inspired by a wonderful classics course on A's Poetics taught by Helen Cullyer at the University of Pittsburgh, and it's designed to give grads a primer in ancient rhetoric, a stronger grasp of Aristotle, and a deep understanding of how A's concepts have shaped the field of rhetorical studies for better and worse.

As the link above will show, HWPD asks women professors to post about things they like about their profession. One thing I love about my job at the moment is the fact that we get a sabbatical every six years. This is a pretty intense job with so. many. things and people to keep track of and such high expectations wrt research and publishing that it's very nice to be told to go away and focus on research for a semester. Very, very nice. And while this time gives me a chance to recharge my research batteries, I have also found that I've been increasingly fond of my colleagues of late, and (surprise) that I already feel excited about teaching again, when the time comes. So, mushy gushy. There it is.

13 February 2008

Today I have to go in to Lincoln Hall, a.k.a the office. I've been doing pretty well staying away during my sabbatical, only visiting there on the occasional Sunday to sift through my mail. Having one of my dissertating students writing her dissertation in my office also helps prevent me from sneaking in there. But I have to go in anyway, because I've agreed to meet with a job candidate (don't worry, dissertation student, I told the head I can't meet in my office!). It's a long boring administrative story about why I need to do this (the story, not the candidate), so I won't go into it at the moment. But it's going to be thirty minutes, in and out. Kind of like that episode of the office when Dwight shuns Andy, which means that he won't speak to him. Then it becomes necessary to speak to him, Dwight makes a vertical gesture--top to bottom--and says "unshun." After he's said his piece he reverses the gesture and makes the reverse gesture and says "shun." So for thirty minutes--and thirty minutes only--I will say "unsabbatical."